…saying “see you later”, Living Waters update, ministry transition!

(posted by Mindy)

See you later, Grandpa!

Whew! What a whirlwind of a week. It seems like forever ago since I last posted, but in actuality it has only been one week. (As I see the reports on the news of the pounding New York City has been receiving from Hurricane Sandy, I am thanking the Lord that we were in New York last Monday night instead of yesterday.) A lot has happened and a lot of emotional energy has been expended this week. We got home from our trip to the Bahamas (via New York and Minneapolis) on Tuesday afternoon, hurried to unpack and repack, and then left Wednesday afternoon for my parent’s house in Indiana. Along with the sadness of the occasion came the blessing of being with family. My sisters and their families joined us at our parent’s house, and we had fun visiting, laughing, crying, eating, and enjoying one another’s company.

Zachary entertaining my cousin’s triplets at the visitation

Andrew, Garrett, Logan, and Zachary hanging out with a cousin’s boys

Being a World War II veteran, Grandpa was buried with full military honors. I have never been to a funeral of a military veteran, and it was touching to say the least. Grandpa LOVED trains; therefore it was a perfect, though unplanned, tribute to him when a train whistle blew its whistle just as the funeral service was ending. That train whistle caused all of us to gasp, look at each other, and smile through our tears.

Mom, Uncle Raymond and Aunt Bonnie receiving condolences from the VFW

A special, final memorial to our Grandpa (After the granddaughter’s memorial speech, my sister’s, cousins and I each laid a bag of M&M’s in front of grandpa’s casket. When we were little girls, Grandpa would always bring us a bag of M&M’s. When we grew up, he would give us M&M’s at Christmas. Yes, the M&M’s were buried with him.)

We celebrated Tim’s birthday at a small cafe in West Lebanon, IN on Saturday.

Living Waters Update

It is hard to believe, but in less than a week, cooking at Living Waters Bible Camp will be over for us. We are here for two more months, but since there are no guest groups coming and no camp sponsored events until Winterama and Winter Recharge after Christmas, Tim will not be cooking at camp. He will still be busy though. He plans on deep cleaning the camp kitchen, finishing up the dishwasher training video, and tying up loose ends for the new kitchen manager when he or she arrives. Camp is working on hiring a replacement kitchen manager, and it is possible that Tim will be involved with training the new manager.

Ministry Transition

In preparation for moving, we continue to sort through things. We sold our piano yesterday. It has not been that difficult getting rid of our earthly possessions, but for some reason, when the piano left our house yesterday evening, I cried. I have always loved watching and listening to my boys play piano, and when that piano was loaded into the new owner’s truck, I felt like I was losing something very precious. Speaking of selling tings, we are looking to sell a good sized air compressor, a snow blower, and a not-in-really-good-shape gas grill. If you know of anyone who would want one of these things, please let us know.

The date of our final departure is starting to come in to view. We are looking at the middle of January, but we are still not totally clear on how and when everything is going to play out. We are waiting to hear back from two more movers/customs brokers/shippers before we finalize our plans. We are praying we have a better idea of what we will be doing by the first of next week so we can secure a mover, buy plane tickets, and establish/publish a timeline. We will let you all know when we have more definite plans. Please pray that these pieces fall in to place according to God’s will and timing.

The final hard copy of our newsletter along with an updated prayer card and support flier are in the final stages of production. We hope to have them in the mail in the next two weeks.

There is so much more we could say, but we will end this here. Please feel free to contact us at any time. We enjoy hearing from everyone. Until next time, have a great week!